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Akina was mid-introduction to Elena when Ioyla tore into the room and took charge of the situation. Brim was still staring in confusion at Ilistala's crotch, and thankfully, he was too young to really treasure the moment. The pair shuffled through the door as both were torn in separate directions.

Letting herself cave in to peer pressure, the elf took the beer from Ioyla and murmured, "Oh, thank you." Pulling out the bottle of wine she had brought, the elf extended it toward the demon girl saying, "This is for you." Before she could really settle though, her attention was thrust toward the unfamiliar woman. Someone new? How lovely. "Nice to meet you."

Back with the children, Brimstone strained away from Ilistala's hug, though he managed to stay solid even as she grabbed his hand. The boy didn't really like being called "Brimmyhead", but he was feeling a bit shy for some reason. "Hi," he murmured, looking away and ignoring Stala and the other kids completely.

Like an ecstatic child just receiving the gift of their dreams, Ioyla nearly snatched the wine from Akina's hands, shaking the bottle gleefully. Oooo, alcohol! Yay alcohol! "Thank ya kindly, Kina," the demon squeaked, twirling on her heels to stash the gift in the overhead cupbord.

Now what? Ioyla emphasized her abrupt boredom by sliding her thumb and fore-finger across her chin, tapping her cheek and humming and looking like a complete fool. "Damn," she suddenly mused, humming some more, "did anyone bring board games? Scrabble? Clue? Twister?" There was a brief pause as an idea struck. "Naked Twister!"

Oh, hell no, Ilistala would have said, had she been older, not so awkward with words, and actually listening to her mother ramble on about nakedness and Twister. Why was Brimmyhead acting so funny? He surely wasn't shy when she had first met him! Huh!

"Yuh, nuff room," the Shattered toddler replied, taking ahold of Brim's hand and shaking it. She donned a most common expression found in the Infriti household: apprehension. Brimmyhead wasn't supposed to be quiet, he was supposed to be...funny! "Wake up!" Stala demanded, driving her point home by drawing Brimstone's arm up to her mouth and licking the back of his hand. Yup.

Jerava made a mental note to not purchase any alchohol for Ioyla. Ever. A brief tail twitch was the only indication of the elf's general level of awkwardness at being here; Jer did not have friends that invited her over for their kid's birthday parties. Then again, there were few enough people on Gaia that she considered friends, let alone friends with kids. "Cards, yes," Jer said equally quickly following Akina's suggestion. She'd heard of the games Ioyla had listed off - and Naked Twister was something Jer would only play under two circumstances, neither of which had been met so far today. "What kind of card game?" she asked, hoping Ioyla would not suggest strip poker.

"If you're sure," Elena said dubiously while Arya went back to burbling obliviously; the Tall Tale made a mental note to ask her mum to make sure any future siblings (though hopefully there were none) were at least intelligent enough to not make complete fools of themselves in public. Honestly, Arya was so embarrasing. "Brimstone," Elena repeated automatically, her mind still detailing why exactly Anarya was a waste of space. "I'm Elena, and it's a pleasure to meet you." she continued, not noticing right away that Brim was now diving at Stala and that Arya was now quiet, watching the unfolding fight with bright eyes, clearly fascinated by this whole thing. "What?" she said, none too intelligently herself, while her mind tried to catch up. First things first, however: Get out of the way! Huffing indignantly, the girl stalked over to the couch and sat down abruptly, arms folded angrily. Didn't anyone have manners anymore?

Akina's eyes went wide at Ioyla's suggestion. Strip poker? The elf was most definitely neither drunk enough nor extroverted enough to engage in a game such as that. So, it was with a hint of panic in her voice that she quickly cut in, "Oh, yes, go fish or slapjack would be wonderful, I think." Truth be told, the elf did not know much about any other card game aside from those. For a moment, blue eyes flickered to see Brim and Ilistala wrestling, but honestly, the elf had no doubt that the fiery-shattered girl could hold her own against Brim... though she still watched them like a hawk out of the corner of her eye.

"Grawr!" Brim cried aloud. A war chant perhaps? Stalaface was being a real t**t today, and it was time she was punished for her insubordination. Granted, this did not go as well as the nuclear Shattered would have wanted... at all. Fleshy though she was, Ilistala was also a bit more difficult to get a hold of than he had imagined, leaving Brim to snap his teeth at whatever skin he came into contact with, that is to say, generally his own.

Not hearing Elena as they scuffled, Brim was fully invested in the fight at hand. Grunting and fuming, curls of smoke began to lick off of Brimstone's skin as his body began to heat up, but just as he started smoking, Brim and his temporary growth Ilistala bumped into the wall.

The ball split apart, and Brim regarded it as a victory for him though he sported a series of white bruises across his dark skin. "Jerk," he spat under his breath, wanting the last word. Ilistala, of course, could brush it off, but Brimstone was going to hold a grudge... as long as he could remember it.

So, dragging his feet, he plopped down on the couch where Ilistala had patted with his arms folded across his chest. Cheer up, emo kid.

"Yes, zactly, fifty-two card pickup," said Ioyla to Jer's correction. There was a very slight hint of bitterness in her voice, but it was soon drowned out to sudden glee: a timer she had placed atop the oven, one that had been ticking away quietly for about an hour, went off with a shrill ring, which led to Ioyla's squeal of delight.

"Hold that thought, bitches!" The demon whirled around the small kitchen, narrowly avoiding Akina and Jer's faces with her gangly hands. Virtually in the exact same spot she had been standing in only several moments ago (even after all of the asinine spinning), Ioyla bent down, yanked open a cupbord drawer, and returned to her standing position with two oven mitts, which she proudly slipped onto her hands. "Party games are gonna hafta wait: the cake's ready~!"

She opened the oven door, head bopping and smile dazzling, and out came the cake. It was a nice size, round and spongy, with bright green frosting and numerous sugar decorations; most notably the strange blue-colored hearts and yellow-tinted apples. Besides, who baked a cake with the frosting already on?

Ioyla Infriti, that's who.

Ioyla spun around again, aiming to scoot out of the kitchen and place the colorful cake of sugary doom atop her table. It was obvious she was quite pleased with her labor of platonic love, even if the chances of it tasting like anything other than death was slimmer than the chance of winning the lottery. If allowed to squirm past the two elven guests, Ioyla would dump the monsterous thing on her table, waiting for everyone else to get the hint and come have some damn cake.

Meanwhile, back on the couch!

Ilistala had taken quite the liking to Elena's new tats. They were so pretty! And her hair, so shiny, what with all the constellations and stars and...and...other stuff! Jealousy licked at the pit of her heart, but Stala pushed it down to admire the princess' arms some more, quietly drawing her finger across her cool skin.

When Brimstone joined the pair, Stala was ready to start playing. Yay! "Kay," she mumbled, pulling herself to her feet...but not before catching the scent of sugary delight. Ilistala's attention waned from party games to the cake, where it sat, colorful and majestic, next to her insanely proud mother.

"We play after cake! Yes!" The little toddler took off for the table (although the distance between the couch and table wasn't exactly an amazing definition of distance), arms splayed behind her back, airplane-style. "Yummy yummy cake time, food time for me~" she sang, circling the table and eventually climbing into her chair to bounce and giggle with excitement.

If Elena and Brim hadn't already removed themselves from the couch and started the amazing journey to the birthday girl, Ilistala would pound the tabletop with two chubby fists and cry: "Come ONNNN!" What a sweet little girl.

Jer was about to comment on something when the timer went off. Mouth opened, she closed it with a barely audbile click and eyed the creation coming out of the oven with a certain amount of trepidation. "Oh, good," she said with a somewhat sickly smile. "Cake. Looks good," she continued, surprisingly enough meaning it. It didn't look poisonous, and perhaps Ioyla knew what she was doing when it came to cooking. Not really willing to risk the cake completely sober, Jer took another drink of her beer, catching Akina's glance and returning a brief quirked eyebrow.

"You've already got the rude part down rather well," Elena said to Brimstone's back before getting up off the couch herself. "Come on, Arya," she said with a sigh, bending over to pick Arya's squirmy little body up. "And if you give me another sunburn, I will freeze your stupid little tail's head off," the Tale muttered darkly under her breath, causing Arya to suddenly stop all movement and whimper slightly, deep in her throat.

"No freeze," Arya said plaintively, holding her arms out to Jer to get away from her apparently psychopathic older sister. Jer settled Arya in her lap and gave Elena a stern glance. There would be much talking about this later, oh yes.

"It's a very nice looking cake, Miss Ioyla," Elena said brightly, ignoring her mum. "Stala's lucky to have a mum who can cook as good as you." Yes, butter up the one with the food. Good plan! Jer rolled her eyes slightly and ran a finger down Arya's back in an attempt to soothe the toddler. Of course, cake would probably cheer the Shattered girl right up.

No sooner had Ioyla dropped the cake before Brim than he was facefirst in its gooey-ness, slurping and gnawing at the plate as if he had never eaten before. Akina stood behind him, cautiously poking the strange glob of food with her fork and wondering if there was a potted plant or dog nearby that she could pawn the mess off on. Not wanting to be rude, Akina scraped the tiniest bit of what she presumed was icing off the cake and dabbed it rapidly on her tongue, perhaps in the hope that the faster she moved the less she would taste.

It's a shame she was wrong.

Nearly in time to Ioyla's cursing, Akina sputtered for a moment, placing two fingers to her lips as she quietly spit the "icing" back on to her plate. Hopefully, since Brim was eating so much, Ioyla wouldn't notice Akina's rejection of the mess.

Unphased by the terrible taste, Brimstone pressed on in engulfing his piece, looking up only after he had perfected his cake beard. "Cake," he murmured quietly, as if reminding himself that this was what it tasted like. Poor kid, he'd never eat cake again.

Oh well, he wrinkled his nose once before turning back to his guardian to stare curiously at her. Did she like her cake too? The elf just stared back with a soft smile, partially disgusted at the fact that Brim had eaten his whole piece. She grabbed a napkin from nearby and took ahold of Brimstone's face, despite his attempts to break free. One hand pushed his hair out of his eyes while the other attempted to scrub the cake debris off of his nose, cheeks, and chin. Akina managed to get most of it off, and after smelling the cake for that long, she couldn't do it anymore. She'd just have to worry about finishing the job later tonight when Brim took his bath.

Unsure of what to say, Akina just stared at her plate, wondering if anyone would notice her quickly tossing it in the trash can. Brimstone, on the other hand, was ready to get this show on the road. "PRESENTS!" he announced loudly, looking for wherever they were stashed. Brimstone had seen enough birthday specials on TV to know that there were always presents involved, and deep down, he hoped that Ilistala would give them to him.

Or maybe he could just steal them. Ilistala was pretty small after all, and he had TOTALLY won in the wrestling contest so... it was on.